USC pulls away in OT to beat Dayton

With USC leading by two and 5.5 seconds left in regulation, Dayton guard Kevin Dillard drove the length of the floor, drew two defenders near the baseline and found a wide-open Devin Oliver under the basket.

Oliver's ensuing layup beat the buzzer by one tenth of a second, and forced an extra period that the Trojans escaped with a 63-61 victory Sunday at Galen Center.

"We thought that we'd hit the game-winning shot before," USC guard Jio Fontan said of the shot he made on the previous possession that produced a 53-51 lead. "At least, we celebrated like it was. Dillard made a great play. He's a premier point guard, and I wasn't surprised with the play he made."

In overtime, the Trojans (5-8) scored nine points on their first four possessions – including four by Aaron Fuller (12 points, 10 rebounds) – to nab a four-point lead they wouldn't relinquish.

"For our kids to come out of regulation, when they think they've won, and obviously haven't," USC coach Kevin O'Neill said, "to come back in overtime and do what they did was really commendable."

USC forward Eric Wise finished with a game-high 19 points despite getting ejected late in the second half for picking up his second technical foul.

The redshirt senior's first technical was part of a double-technical early in the second half. His second came with 5:29 left in regulation, following a defensive rebound by the Trojans.

"I think we have an immature group A-to-Z," O'Neill said. "Picking up two technical fouls in a two-point game, it's immaturity. ... "

Wise's second technical triggered a 9-2 run by Dayton (9-4) that knotted the score at 51 – the first tie since it was 6-all.

"It'll get addressed when these guys are done playing college basketball," O'Neill said of the immaturity remarks. "If you think you're playing anywhere past college with that kind of immaturity, you're not."

With both teams squandering potential go-ahead possessions late, USC bled the game clock to under 10 seconds before Fontan drove into the lane, pulled up near the free throw line and hit a bank shot that put the hosts back on top.

"Once the clock winds down, I have a little more freedom to go one-on-one," Fontan said. "I just made the shot. ... I definitely knew I was going for the bank (on the pull-up)."

Oliver's buzzer-beating layup – one that took a good five minutes for the referees to confirm via replay – then sent the game into overtime.

"Live, I thought it was good," Fontan said. "Once I saw the replay though, I thought it wasn't. It was a tough call to make. ... Those referees have a tough job."

Defensively, Fontan held Dillard (averaging just more than 17 points a game) to 13 points on 1-of-10 shooting. As a team, Dayton shot just 34 percent from the field.

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